This Is My Family
by Kcx
Summary: Escorting an estrained noblewomen from Windhelm to Solitude can be a daunting task; especially when you're a nine year old Elven child.
1. Bone Cold

Written because I thought it was a good idea at the time. I might continue it, if I get enough reviews and follows. Anyway, enjoy!

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_"This is my family. I found it all on my own. We are little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good." - __Stitch_

Considering that they needed the coin, it was only fair that they take the job. It seemed simple enough, too; just take a noble woman from Windhelm to Solitude and ensure her safety. But, considering it was _their_ group, anything bad that could possibly happen was indeed _bound_ to happen one way or another. After only a few months of traveling, Riil had learned this rather quickly. To say that he should have known better, however, was an understatement?

"It's _cold_," he whined for probably the third time at his place beside the cart. He was shivering in his boots now, the snow a slow but steady – not to mention heavy – downfall. By the time the night rolled around, it would be up to his knees. And he wasn't even above four and a half feet in height! "Why'd we have to stand out _here_ and wait?" he tried again, and this time he at least got a response.

"Would _you_ rather see the slums of o' _mighty_ Windhelm with the others?" Fandreigh asked sarcastically as he came around the side of the carriage they were loading up.

The brown-haired Imperial was obviously not too happy about standing out there in the freezing snow, either, but at least he was dressed the part. Riil's boots were already getting soaked, and he was sure to catch a cold without a jacket. Another moment of shivering and staring doe-like at the man, and Fandreigh finally gave in.

"Oh, alright, come here," he ordered hastily, and the elf took no time in rushing over to the end of the wooden carriage. Rather easily, he was picked up and seated amongst the various items that belonged to both them and the noble women, and all were neatly placed. That was all probably Fandreigh's doing. "Just make sure not to move anything around," Fandreigh ordered, and disappeared around the side of the wagon.

At the front, the covered carriage shook with force as Hemor and M'koteg attempted to hook Del's black stallion onto the cart. For a woman, whose stature was short and whose build was not very large; Hemor was a rather strong and sturdy Redguard. M'koteg, well, as far as Riil knew, all Orcish people were rather hearty and strong. He'd yet to meet one as such. He'd have to ask about that some time. Rab, he was sure, was off with Del attempting to get supplies. Although not a long journey, they still needed extra food and clothing in case anything happened. Braizer and Ji, as far as he was concerned, were in Windhelm retrieving the women now.

Covering himself with a blanket he found under some wrapped up heirlooms, he proceeded to curl up and try to retrieve warmth from it. A dog barked from somewhere near the stables, and Braizer's paint horse neighed restlessly in its tie beside the cart. He'd barely noticed that sleep was starting to take him until it was too late.


	2. As Words Go

He awoke with a sudden jerk. The carriage had hit some rock in road, causing part of it to nearly jump off of the icy ground. Riil sat up hastily, feeling around groggily for his covers. Had it gotten colder, and darker? It seemed not to matter, for in his sleep, he realized, someone had added an extra blanket onto him and made sure to tuck him in so he wouldn't freeze. It must have been Fandreigh's doing.

Remembering that he was moving, the elven boy looked around before attempting to lean out to get a better look at his surroundings – and was met with another face. Riil yelped and stumbled back into the cart just as the figure hoisted itself onto the back and sat wobbly on the edge. Rab was lucky he meant no harm; otherwise there would have been a fireball to his face rather quickly because of the scare.

"You're awake!" the dark elf before him squeaked, trying his best not to bend the bow on his back as he sat haphazardly sat in the shaking carriage. Riil huffed as he tried to sit again, but Rab seemed not to notice much. On the contrary, he kept right on talking. "You fell asleep before we even got out of the city! Man, you must've been _tired_!"

"A little," Riil yawned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Have… Have we gotten very far yet?" Rab shook his head.

"The snow started coming down _really hard_," he squeaked in his high pitched voice. For a twenty-some year old male, he sure spoke strange. "And then it got _really_ bad. I've never seen this much snow back in Morrowind!"

But of course he hadn't. The better half of Morrowind had been constantly covered by soot, lava and ash due to the eruption of Red Mountain over one hundred years ago. He wasn't going to mention that, though. He assumed – or rather, he _hoped_ – that Rab already knew of that. Instead, he merely smiled and nodded. Rab almost – _almost_ – looked like he was going to continue talking, when a voice called for him from somewhere to the side of the carriage. Squeaking, the man quickly propelled himself off, and with a short goodbye and wave, scurried off to whoever it was.

Again Riil began inspecting the carriage he was riding in. Haphazardly he threw the blankets off of him, putting one around his shoulders for warmth. Although daylight still poured through the fluffy grey clouds overhead, it was chilly out; large flakes falling slowly but in abundance from the sky. Having lived in Riften his whole life before traveling with 'the group,' Riil had only regularly seen rainfall and mist, along with the occasional fog. Snow had been rare, and often it was a thin sheet atop the cold, hard ground. He almost missed that place now as he thought of it. Almost. Stumbling through the darker part of the carriage, he managed to kick enough stuff over – on _accident_ – to find his pack. A small thing, it only held some of his old books and an extra pair of clothes. He never carried it much anymore because it slowed him down, and Fandreigh and Ko seemed to take not mind in taking turns carrying it for him.

Grabbing a book at random, he shuffled towards the front of the carriage, where the seat for the carriage driver sat. Somewhere outside of the safe haven, Ji and Braizer were arguing about something. Probably Ji trying to get the lizard to do another heist of some sort, and Braizer was disagreeing with it as always. Hemor was joking about something with M'koteg, and Del was near the front of the carriage, probably talking to one of the noblewomen's guards. Speaking of which, where had she gone -?

"Oh, why hello there," came a melodic voice that startled Riil into almost slipping as he tried to climb his way onto the carriage seat by himself. "I didn't see you back there. Are you alright?"

After he managed to right himself and trying not to grumble, he looked up with a rather disgruntled and annoyed expression. The women looked Nordic, what with her blonde hair – which was long and tied up - and blue eyes akin to Braizer's. Her skin was pale, but not so much so that she seemed vampiric. She was smiling brightly down at him, hands in her lap and a shawl on her shoulders. She wore a necklace and a circlet, too. Riil made a mental note of their appearance in case they happened to 'disappear' while in Ji's presence.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm fine, thank you," said Riil as he finally managed to pull himself onto the seat and sit properly. Two guards walked along on either side of Titan, the black stallion, and if Del hadn't of been standing there, the horse would have surely been panicking.

"I didn't know they were bringing a child," the women went on, smoothing out her dress, "otherwise I might have brought more to accommodate you."

"It's ok," Riil replied with a shrug, opening his book to the bookmark he had placed in it, "I get used to it." The women gave him a near pitiful look, though tried to clear it from her face quickly. She smiled again instead.

"So you're living with them, then?" she asked. Riil nodded.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied with a shrug. "We don't really _live_ anywhere, but that's ok." The women's smile faltered slightly.

"Oh, so you all travel around a lot?" Riil nodded again, setting his book on his lap to make eye contact with the women. It seemed he wasn't going to get much reading done at the moment.

"That's our job," he said. "Or, most of _their_ jobs. I just help Fandreigh most of the time with organizing."

"Fandreigh…. He's the Imperial, yes?" Again, Riil nodded. "He seems….. Nice."

"He usually is, unless someone messes with his things. Or if someone throws pieces of Draugr at him."

The women hesitated, expression twisting in confusion – and some sort of horror. She looked down to her lap, and for a moment, Rill thought that his last comment had worked, and that he was going to get to start reading again. Right as he began to start doing so, however, the women began speaking yet again.

"So, aside from the… from throwing the dead at one another," she said slowly, "they treat you alright?" Riil was almost caught off guard by that question.

"Yes," he said, "why would you ask that?" There was another moment of hesitation from the Nordic women. Finally, after seeming to contemplate something, she spoke.

"Well, it's quite obvious that they aren't taking you somewhere, like to your parents, otherwise they might have remembered to mention you. That, and I've rarely heard of groups of people being assigned a mission to take a child anywhere."

"No, ma'am," Riil said, shaking his head. "My parents are dead. They've been so since shortly after I was born. I heard that they died in a house fire, but I don't know for sure." The women looked saddened, and seemed about to apologize when Riil spoke up. "It's quite alright," he said, "I've been used to it. I lived in the Riften Orphanage since I could remember. It was alright, I guess, for an orphanage full of Nordic children. I was the only elf since I arrived and Constance – she's the one who runs the orphanage – she said that I've been there since I was only a few months old. I just turned nine not too long ago."

"Oh, well surely if you were there for _that_ long, _someone_ must have tried to adopt you, yes?" Now it was Riil's turn to look saddened. He stared down at his lap for a moment, in thought, before answering her question.

"Ma'am, do you know what it's like to be looked down on because of your race?" he asked. "To have people judge you because of what others of your kind had done to them? I might not always be around to hear it, but I know that there are people who call my kind – Altmer – names, and ones I probably shouldn't repeat, as well as give me looks whenever my back is turned. And that's all because of what our ancestors did, and what others say of us."

"That's terrible," the noblewomen gasped, "and that's the exact reason why I left Windhelm. I'm sure that of all the places, racism is the worst there." Riil didn't seem too surprised, though paused to look behind him, towards the voices and laughter.

"And that's why it's nice to be with them," he said. "They were the first people to accept me for me. They don't treat each other any different than you might treat another Nordic person, and it's kind of nice. To say that _all_ of them take care of me is an understatement, and I know I'm never forgotten like I was back at the orphanage. We're…. almost like a family." Smiling brightly, he turned back to the women, demeanor changed. "No, actually, we are a lot like family. We found it together, though however much traveling we had to do. We might be rather small, and broken, and we may seem odd and disagree on a lot. But together, we're family, and we're still good."

There came abrupt shouting from somewhere behind them; Titan slowly temporarily, Del trying to look at what was happening while at the same time trying to calm the beast. The noblewomen leaned over the side of the carriage, trying to find the cause. Riil was sure that something heavy was thrown around. Someone cursed loudly. The noblewomen looked rather shocked as she brought herself back up, though the child before her just kept smiling brightly.

"Yeah," he said with a nod, "still good."

"Well," the Nordic women said after a long pause, "it seems you really do have an interesting family." She hesitated on the last word, though it still made Riil nod happily.

"Like I said, they're alright," he said. "I never really had a family before – and I mean a _real_ family – and if it's the best I can do, then I don't want anything better." Looking around, he first pointed to Del and said merrily, "That's Del. He's kind of like my older brother. He's a Sellsword, and sometimes he lets me practice my magic on him because he's so strong. Him and M'koteg and Hemor spar a lot.

"M'koteg – he's the Orc – he's kind of like my other brother. And he's the guardian of the group. He protects everyone and makes sure that we're all safe and sound. He doesn't like anyone getting hurt on his watch. It's fun to ride on his shoulders, because he's so tall. He doesn't mind at all. He always tells me I'm real small and need to start gaining more weight. He's always nice, though, and isn't mean like the other Orcs I've heard about. He doesn't say much, either, which makes him so intimidating. But when he does, he always has something smart to say.

"Hemor's the Redguard. She's a warrior, like M'koteg and Del. She's like my mom. She makes sure I stay out of trouble and don't get myself hurt, which, of course, I don't. She's very different though, because she likes women instead of men. I don't get why some people outside of our 'family' find that weird, though. I mean, so long as you're nice to people and aren't in their business, its ok, right?

"There's Rabdom, the Dark Elf. I call him Rab because that's easier to say. He's like my _little_ brother, even though he's older than me. He can be very silly and weird and immature sometimes, but whenever he goes out to hunt, he takes me along to show me stuff. I even got to help a little fox that'd been injured. Rab was actually the one who found him, but he felt bad for it and wanted me to help it, since I know how to heal. He's really goofy, but he's also really nice.

"Ji and Braizer are the two you heard fighting. They're like the parents of the group, because they lead us and tell us what to do and the likes, and make sure that we have everything we need. Ji's the Khajiit, and he's really good at sneaking. No worries, though, he won't take anything from you. Sometimes he acts like he doesn't care about us, or that he doesn't want to be around us, but I know that he actually cares; else he wouldn't take care of us so. He just won't admit it. I heard he actually came from Skyrim, but I don't know where from.

"Braizer is the other Argonian. He's Del's father, I guess. He's good at trading and getting us out of messy situations. I've never seen him physically fight much, but I know he can hunt and use magic. He even sings me to sleep sometimes, or tells us stories he's heard at night while we're around the campfire. I have to admit, he _probably_ has more logic and reason than Ji, but they're both ok.

"Then there's Fandreigh. He's _really_ good with magic. He likes books, too, like me! He teaches me a lot of things, like spells he's learned, and reads me books at night, too, when I can't sleep. I've also gotten a few good books from him. I think I have some he bought for me, too. He's…. He's kind of almost my dad." Leaning over, Riil whispered, "But don't tell him I said that!"

The women had to cover her mouth as she giggled, but still nodded. "Why of course," she so happily agreed. "I promise. Your family does seem like an interesting bunch."

Riil nodded happily. He wouldn't really have it any other way.


	3. In The Night

He awoke sometime in the night, shivering. The snow had proved itself better, piles of it going as high as three feet. Titan was strong, but the tundra of Skyrim proved stronger, and thus they were forced to make a stop for the night. Riil didn't complain; this always meant that Fandreigh could read to him more. Sure, the man _did_ seem a bit moody today, but Riil just shrugged it off as him being tired. He seemed to be a _lot_ of that lately.

Aside from one of the two guards that the noblewomen had brought – of who was fighting both the sleep _and_ the cold – there was no one else awake. M'koteg snored loudly in his sleep, a sound Riil had become accustomed to. The fire in the middle of their little camp had fizzled down to a simple glow, hissing every so often as snow hit the still hot coals. Someone – he was sure it was Del-Rah or Braizer – was mumbling in their sleep. Having a bad dream, maybe?

His blanket was starting to grow wet and soaked the more he waited, soaking through to his clothes and making him shiver and shake. Standing and disposing of the blanket, Riil clasped his hands onto his shoulders and shuffled his way across their little campsite. The guard stirred as his feet crunched on the fresh snow, though he wasn't questioned. In the darkness, pale moon covered by sheets of clouds and dying trees and full pines overhead, Riil managed to find his objective; Fandreigh sleeping on some sort of bedding that took the ground away from him, curled haphazardly in his covers and shivering still. Any snow that'd once been near him had obviously been pushed or melted away as so it wouldn't be anywhere near him, the ground dried to a crisp though slowly gaining dampness from the falling snow. How typical.

Kicking any sort of snow off of his boots – however wet they now were – Riil quietly scurried to the sleeping Imperial. Trying his best not to wake him, the boy carefully went through the task of trying to pull some of his tucked-away blankets from him for warmth. He was sure Fandreigh would have a fit if he awoke freezing in the morning. He'd almost managed to slip under without a problem, when Fandreigh began stirring. Before he had much of a chance to slip away, a hand grabbed him roughly by the collar of his shirt, making him squeak and curl up. Not that the man would do anything of malicious intent to him just for waking him up, but it would be better safe than sorry.

"Atariil?" the Imperial finally croaked, and the elf peeked up at him to see Fandreigh squinting down at him.

Riil quickly nodded, and after a brief grunt, Fandreigh released his shirt, arm falling to the cold sod to wrap partly around him. None the less, Riil quickly took the opportunity and shuffled up to him, flush against the man's side. The blanket was tossed over him, and warmth engulfed him as he was tucked in. Riil instantly buried his face into the man's side, as a means of a pillow.

"Next time, just try waking me up," he could hear Fandreigh rumble, but by then, he was already being lulled to sleep.


	4. Morning Sun

Riil awoke again to a fury of motion. He sat groggily, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes as he tried to figure out what was going on. Dawn had seemed to break long ago, birds singing amongst the trees almost merrily. Snow was still falling, but not as badly as the night prior. The flakes where smaller now, though they still fell in abundance. White fluffy clouds hung lowly overhead, and for a moment Riil almost expected them to fall from the sky in a white sheet that smothered everything. If not for the dread that would accompany it, it actually sounded quite delightful.

"Alright kid, time to get up and get moving. Got a long day ahead of us."

Riil almost jumped at the voice, nearly right behind him, and would have squeaked and made a sort of humorous scene, however a pair of hands lifted him up from under his shoulders before he could do so. He expected to be placed on his feet; however he just kept going until he was on another's shoulders. M'koteg took a half glance at the boy as he settled himself, using the man's head as a pillow. The Orc snorted in amusement.

"Looks like _you_ had a good night's sleep," Ko commented as he held onto the boy's feet and started moving around again. Riil merely grunted, still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

At some point, as they moved, Riil realized that he'd been handed an apple for breakfast, though he knew not by whom. He'd been merely listening to everyone bustling around, and the occasional greeting or shout as Ko did his best to work with the boy on his shoulders. Riil never complained, of course, and simply ate his apple in peace. The noblewomen, who stood amongst the commotion to make sure everything was running smoothly – that's what he assumed, at least – had noticed him once and smiled. He barely managed a smile back.

Riil was eventually placed on Braizer's paint mare, which stood more calmly than Titan – who'd been tied to a tree at the edge of their camp as so he wouldn't spook – as everyone moved. Whereas usually she was used for quick traveling by Braizer or the usual pack horse, the mare now simply held a few items on her pack alongside her saddle. Compared to Titan – whom Riil was sure, was her son, if Del's stories of home were true – the paint, whose name he couldn't recall, was calm and patient. She didn't spook too easily, and was often let into smaller towns to be tied outside of inns because she could stand people more. Made sense, considering who she belonged to.

Finishing up his own part of the apple, the boy partly stood and leaned towards the mare's head. As he suspected, she merely turned her small head partly to see what he was doing. Realizing that he was trying to offer her the rest of the apple, the mare snorted and reached around as best she could. They met half way, and Riil giggled as she snorted on his hand before taking it. She crunched it down easily, bits falling to the white ground to be left to rot. Too bad it seemed nothing but pines could grow here, otherwise Riil might have planted a few apple seeds before they left.

"You look comfortable," came a snort as Riil sat back down. The boy only jumped slightly, though seemed less amused when he realized that it was Braizer doing the joking. The Argonian grabbed a part of the mare's harness as she finished eating the apple she'd been given. "Did you sleep much last night?" Braizer went on. "Doesn't look like it." Riil shrugged.

"I only got up a couple times this time," he said, "but that was because I got cold."

"Is that why you were with Fandreigh when everyone started to get up?" Braizer asked with amusement in his voice. Riil mocked pouted at the sound of it.

"Yes," he still admitted, though trying to keep some sort of smile from his face.

Having to assume that Fandreigh didn't like children – or other people in general – much before they'd 'adopted' Riil, seeing him act like some sort of caregiver to someone besides himself would have been really amusing. Riil never really cared much, though. Fandreigh always let him have books or would read to him whenever they had the chance to stop for rest, which was always nice. Riil could read for himself, though considering he'd often read for himself since he learned how to read, this was much nicer.


End file.
